Ken Lingenfelter thinks the Reaper will destroy the SVT Raptor

The world's foremost third-party GM tuner goes dinosaur hunting.

Whenever you see 'Lingenfelter Performance' inked into a press conference itinerary, you know there's a monster somewhere in the building. At this year's Chicago Auto Show, it's the new 2014 Reaper—a Silverado 1500-based supertruck that produces 550 glorious, supercharged horsepower in its top trim and 425 hp in its 5.3-liter configuration.

Sure, the 2014 Reaper's primary mission is to fill a market vacancy, giving Chevy diehards a high-performance mid-size pickup with legit off-road prowess. But we walked into the 2014 Chicago Auto Show with one burning question about Lingenfelter's new lifted-tire assassin: Ignoring Bowtie and Blue Oval allegiances, why should we buy the Reaper over an F-150 SVT Raptor?

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We sat down with Lingenfelter Performance's eponymous founder and tuning guru, Ken Lingenfelter, and asked him just that. Here's what he had to say …

Military-grade suspension

Ken Lingenfelter says: "We feel that we've done a better job on the suspension than Raptor has. Ride Tech (has) done suspension for off-road military vehicles for a long time. We use their engineering along with Fox shocks, and the combination of those two makes it a much slicker product. If you're going to off-road, what better example to use than military products that are used to keep people alive?"

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R&Tsays: Ride Tech's collaborations with the armed forces are classified (no, literally … like with the cartoon red stencil stamp), but we're still familiar with the firm's work. You may know the Indiana-based outfit better by its old name, Air Ride Technologies. If you've dabbled some in the hot rod scene, then odds are you've seen Ride Tech's work—we're talking everything from high-end A-body tubular trailing arms to '57 Chevy full bag setups. It's all done in-house, from CNC machining and shock dynoing to component assembly, and everything in between. Both the Reaper and Raptor utilize Fox Racing suspension components (which we've gotten up close and personal with before), but Ken thinks the custom work with Ride Tech gives his Reaper a huge advantage.

Superior platform

Ken Lingenfelter says: "The way General Motors has engineered the Silverado, it's just a stronger, better-built truck [than the F-150]. We had a better base to work on."

R&Tsays: No doubt, the new Silverado 1500 chassis is a formidable piece of kit—fully-boxed ladder construction, gobs of high-strength steel, four-point-mounted front axle, and those hydroformed frame rails GM loves talking about. In 1500 LTZ 4x4 guise, the Silverado looks smart next to comparable Ram and Ford models, weighing nearly 400 lbs less than the former and roughly 200 lbs under the latter. So the Reaper seems clever now, but we'll see how everything shakes out once a Raptor version of the new Jenny Craig deluxe aluminum-bodied F-150 comes around.

Supercharger savvy

Ken Lingenfelter says: "You know, the Raptor has been supercharged—Shelby supercharged it, Roush tried a little bit—but they don't have as much experience as we do supercharging and turbocharging. We've been doing it forever. I think we do a better job."

R&Tsays: Ken cites the GT500 hype of a few years ago, when Shelby swore up and down that its blown 'Stang would do 200 mph. He's quick to remind people that, while the Shelby Mustang top speed remains somewhat controversial, nobody can dispute the Lingenfelter ZR1 Camaro's 202.67-mph run … you know, because it's on YouTube. Ken chalks this up to tuning and forced induction acumen, something he thinks applies to the Reaper vs. Raptor debate, as well.